BOSTON LEGAL: SON OF THE DEFENDER (TV)

Summary

One in this darkly comic series focusing on a firm of brilliant but emotionally challenged attorneys in Boston. In this episode, Alan's neighbor Jenna is arrested for solicitation along with Senator Wally Bird, while Shirley, representing two dueling beauty queens, prepares to keep the lecherous Denny away from the women. Denny, however, is surprised by a visit from Joe Gordon, whom he and his father successfully defended from a murder charge in 1957 – along with Aaron Sears, son of the victim, who has come to take them both hostage. Sears orders Denny to put on an explosive vest like his, and though Denny declares that his "Mad Cow disease" has rendered him unafraid of death, Sears warns him not to risk his co-workers' lives by allowing the vests to detonate in the office. Alan, not wishing Jenna to be implicated by Bird's plea of no contest, argues that the two are "truly, madly, deeply" in love and committed no crime, and his wiseacre comments land him in jail for two days on contempt charges alongside Jenna.

Sears rounds up the rest of the partners and the two beauty queens and orders them all to be his "jurors" in Gordon's new on-the-spot "trial," though he releases "pretty boy" Brad, sure that he will side with Gordon, and Shirley, whom he orders to deal with the cops. In his "opening statements," Sears explains that his mother's murder destroyed his family and his own adult life, but Denny, recalling the original trial fifty years earlier, swears that Gordon is innocent. Bird is thrown into the call along with Alan and Jenna, and as Shirley and the police look into Sears' background, Brad tries to "Die Hard" the situation and ends up stuck halfway into an air vent. Clarence reads out the maid's original testimony, in which she swears that she saw Gordon fleeing the building right before she discovered Mrs. Sears' strangled body, and Denny recalls his father's attempts to make the jurors doubt her words, and when the police make contact via telephone, Paul is unnerved to realize that Sears does not intend to leave the scene alive. Jenna refuses to flip on Bird, telling Alan that he has been kind to her, and they learn that the senator's scandal has been pushed aside as the top news story because of a hostage situation elsewhere. Sears' daughter Karen contacts her father and begs him not to hurt the lawyers, but he swears that what he is doing is justified.

Bethany tries to reason with the "nutjob," and Denny recalls his father's manipulative strategy for discrediting the eyewitness. Sears tells the others that Crane Sr. brought in a Gordon lookalike to create reasonable doubt, and Sears orders the "jurors" to begin their deliberation. Gordon, however, requests to "testify" in his own defense, as he refused to do in 1957. Elsewhere, Bird's wife Harriet arrives at the jail, and he makes a humble confession, explaining that he has many insecurities related to his physique, but she storms out in disgust when he admits to hiring a sex worker. Gordon, aware that Crane Sr. thought him guilty because of his lack of an alibi, finally admits that he was indeed in the building at the time, but was in fact with his male lover, a fact that he could not openly reveal in the '50s. Alan gets himself sent back to his cell with another sassy comment to the judge, and Denny nervously points out that there was no other evidence besides the maid's testimony implicating Gordon, thus creating genuine reasonable doubt. Sears orders the hostages to come up with a "genuine" verdict, though they begin arguing amongst themselves, unsure if acknowledging Gordon's potential innocence is worth angering Sears enough to kill them all. In the conference room, Sears needles Denny about his father, and Denny sadly recalls Crane Sr. declaring that he "didn't really know him at all" when young Denny tried to speak up in Gordon's favor.

Alan and Jenna are highly uncomfortable as Harriet and Bird have another heart-to-heart in the jail cell, and Harriet decides that she cannot continue "pretending" that their marriage is strong now that Bird has humiliated her by getting caught with a prostitute. The hostages deliver their verdict of "not guilty," which devastates Sears, and he prepares to end his life and all of theirs. Denny, however, addresses him kindly and admits that he and his family did not consider the harmful effects to the Sears family when they schemed to get Gordon off, and Sears allows the police to safely remove the explosive vest and take him into custody without incident. Bird is released, and Alan advises him not to let Harriet "give up on him" just yet. Back on Denny's balcony, Alan reacts with surprise to his friend's crazy experience, and though Denny at first boasts that he and Crane Sr. were "quite a team," he then sadly admits that his father went on to disown him. Alan, struck by this, assures Denny that he is proud of him. Includes commercials and promos.

(This episode includes scenes from a 1957 two-part episode of "Studio One in Hollywood" entitled "The Defender," starring a young William Shatner as the son of tough lawyer Ralph Bellamy. For those episodes, see T77:0035 and T77:0036.)

Details

• NETWORK: ABC
• DATE: April 3, 2007 Tuesday 10:00 PM
• RUNNING TIME: 0:58:03
• COLOR/B&W: Color
• CATALOG ID: B:93281
• GENRE: Comedy
• SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; Drama; Lawyers
• SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2004-2008
• COMMERCIALS:
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  • TV - Commercials - The Home Depot stores
  • TV - Commercials - The Will Rogers Institute
  • TV - Commercials - Verizon Wireless cellular services
  • TV - Commercials - Walt Disney resort theme parks
  • TV - Promos - "20/20"
  • TV - Promos - "Boston Legal" upcoming episode
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  • TV - Promos - "Desperate Housewives"
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CREDITS

• Janet Leahy … Executive Producer
• Bill D'Elia … Executive Producer, Director
• David E. Kelley … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
• Mike Listo … Co-Executive Producer
• Steve Robin … Supervising Producer
• Janet Knutsen McCann … Producer
• Craig Turk … Co-Producer
• Anne M. Uemura … Co-Producer
• Michael Reisz … Co-Producer
• Robert Breech … Consulting Producer
• Lawrence Broch … Consulting Producer
• Susan Dickes … Consulting Producer
• Phoef Sutton … Consulting Producer, Writer
• Danny Lux … Music by
• James Spader … Cast, Alan Shore
• Julie Bowen … Cast, Denise Bauer
• Mark Valley … Cast, Brad Chase
• Rene Auberjonois … Cast, Paul Lewiston
• Constance Zimmer … Cast, Claire Simms
• Gary Anthony Williams … Cast, Clarence Bell
• Candice Bergen … Cast, Shirley Schmidt
• William Shatner … Cast, Denny Crane
• Meredith Eaton-Gilden … Cast, Bethany Horowitz
• Stephen Lee … Cast, Aaron Sears
• Mike Hagerty … Cast, Wally Bird
• Mark L. Taylor … Cast, Attorney Adam Jovanka
• Lawrence Pressman … Cast, Judge Floyd Hurwitz
• Jackie Debatin … Cast, Jenna Aesop
• James Keane … Cast, Joe Gordon
• Billy Mayo … Cast, Detective Sean Wilkins
• Bonnie Bailey-Reed … Cast, Harriet Bird
• Randy Thompson … Cast, Officer Carl Ralston
• Patricia Mizen … Cast, Bobbie
• Alexandra Burkhart … Cast, Debbie
• Stacey Moseley … Cast, Karen Sears
• Barry Sigismondi … Cast, Officer James
• Karen Lew … Cast, Clerk
• Kurt Scholler … Cast, Jail Bailiff #1
• Marcus Folmar … Cast, Jail Bailiff #2